Technology

As the title of this piece implies - amazing things are happening in the world of technology which tie in nicely to the three more big reasons to come to ITEXPO next week in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

First up is an amazing new session titled APIs: The Future of Business. I recently spoke with a business leader who told me her company's APIs have led them to enter numerous new markets - ones that were literally unimaginable to them before they opened their platform to developers. The point is, the opportunity here is twofold. If your company has data or a service which could be of value to others, now is the time to explore how to monetize it.

Twenty-five percent of people won’t make a call on their cell phones this week, just another data point which reinforces the perception that voice is diminishing in value. In my numerous conversations with Jay Blazensky, Co-founder & Chief Revenue Officer of VoiceBase, I couldn’t help but think of how this perception is totally misguided. Why? His company is where voice meets cloud and machine learning.

I hope to see many of you at ITEXPO in Fort Lauderdale, Florida next week. Live events are a crucial way to network with multiple peers at once - providing invaluable insight onto the future of the market.

Here are some of the very exciting things going on at the show - including some very cool prize packages. Have a safe trip!

From Rich Tehrani, TMC's CEO
----------------------------------------------------------So Many Reasons to Attend ITEXPO Next Week!

Dear Colleague,

I am really excited by all of the content at the ITEXPO Florida next week at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale. Here are my eagerly anticipated top reasons to come down to the show.

I encourage you to visit the event site to review the entire program and to register quickly and easily online: www.itexpo.com.

I had a chance to try VidAngel this weekend and I am pretty impressed with the company's business model. You purchase a movie online, stream it to various devices and sell it back within 24 hours and get a credit from the company. Effectively this means you pay $1 for an SD movie and $2 for an HD movie.

If you have an Apple TV, Google Chromecast or Roku box, you can also watch movies on your TV.

The company has dozens of filters you are forced to choose from before you watch. Examples include no profanity, no sex, etc.

Quite often when we think about hackers, we imagine there is someone looking to gain something of value from us. In response, we plan our computer and network security strategy with this in mind. For example, many attacks have targeted credit cards as companies like Target have learned about the hard way. Their breach cost them hundreds of millions - $200 million actually and counting.

CEO Craig Malloy explains the new company’s mission and strategy for the future

I first introduced you to Lifesize in 2007 explaining the company offered near telepresence quality at a fraction of the cost. At the time I said, “The goal of the company is to be the price/performance leader and I can vouch for the quality of their technology as I had a chance to see it for myself.” Two years later, Logitech, excited about the opportunity to move upmarket in the video space, acquired them for $400 million.

The move upmarket: Prior to this acquisition, I had a chance to cover Lifesize as it improved its technology with better quality cameras and other peripherals.

Last May, I alerted you that a solid source told me Verizon was looking to spin off Terremark. Today, we learned this is indeed the case thanks to Reuters (I love to scoop the financial media. Especially when they label their story “Exclusive” ). Peter Radizeski explains why Verizon is doing this – he opines that the telcos are generally hurting.

Like it or not, 2016 might see outright war between companies and leading Republicans as well as Bernie Sanders. Here's why: President Barack Obama is preparing a colossal new executive action that could print-up work permits for a huge number of foreign white-collar graduates every year, above and beyond the levels set by Congress.

There is 100% certainty that what Obama is doing will hurt US workers because foreign students who take jobs will be on the pathway to citizenship which has intrinsic value. In other words, its a perk like healthcare or free sodas. As a result, foreign-born workers will take the same job for less money than a citizen.

While potentially all wages are at risk, its really the white collar tech jobs which have historically drawn a great deal of foreign-born workers.

Corporations will soon be forced to consider the lower-priced worker because if they don't, their competition will.

Conservative Republican candidates and Bernie Sanders have been vociferous about foreign workers taking US jobs.

Unified communications vendor Zultys has been hard at work coming up with a new release and since it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to share what they are up to, I reached out to interview Neil Lichtman, Chairman & CEO of the company. He was gracious enough to give his views on a range of areas from the future of unified to communications the challenges facing channel partners.